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Euan Malloch accompanies Alesha Dixon, playing a Bailey Bootlegger acoustic guitar.
As you all know I am a great fan of women who are slightly bonkers (in a good way!)…this is a great performance by Alesha and she is welcome to our ‘open mike’ night anytime- As long as she brings Euan with her, so he can play his Bailey Bootlegger!
New UV Lacquer System
Introducing our new UV lacquer system
The future ? It’s here at Bailey Guitars!
The crate turned up a while ago and we have been working hard ever since perfecting our technique. It has not been easy and there have been a few pitfalls along the way but the results we are getting now are truly spectacular. I will write a full list of ‘UV’ instructions in a future blog but first I wanted to explain a few things:
Why use UV lacquer?
Conventional lacquer needs time to dry- it contains solvents and these need time to evaporate leaving behind the hard shiny finish which is then flatted and polished to the mirror like surface we are used to seeing on guitars. The problem is it takes so long!
A cellulose finish takes up to 3 months curing time- even then solvents will continue to evaporate causing the lacquer to ‘sink’ into the grain of the wood. At the same time it will be getting thinner and become more brittle, eventually wearing off completely. Look at any really old guitar and you will see what I mean. This is fine for musical instruments, and part of the reason why old guitars sound ‘better’ than new ones, so we will continue to offer a cellulose finish for those traditionalists who are prepared to wait.
There are many alternatives to cellulose for example ‘two pack’ lacquer which dries by a chemical process – a catalyst or hardener is added to the lacquer hence the name. These do dry faster but tend to be thicker and still suffer from sinkage over time.
Our new UV Cure system has many advantages:
UV lacquer can be sprayed brushed or wiped on and is dried or ‘cured’ in minutes with UV light. It still needs flatting and polishing, so roughly the same amount of work goes into each spray job, but:
- It’s faster- there is virtually no drying time so this speeds up the finishing process dramatically.
- It’s thinner- this is great for musical instruments. Thick coatings can dull the sound of a guitar so the thinner it is the better.
- It’s harder- more scratch resistant and durable than other conventional finishes. It is also impervious to chemicals like alcohols and solvents and even itself once dry.
- It’s ‘greener’- better for the environment (and for us). There are no solvents- that’s zero VOC content.
- No sinkage- It won’t sink into the grain because there are no solvents to evaporate- when it’s dry, it’s dry!
Tomorrow never knows…
Our first UV guitar will be assembled tomorrow – Manuel’s. Billy polished it today and it is looking fantastic. I will post pics of the finished guitar ASAP…Looking forward to hearing what you all think.
Euan Malloch plays a Bailey Guitar on The Hour Show Tonight 8pm
Euan Malloch accompanies Alesha Dixon, playing a Bailey Bootlegger acoustic guitar.
- Euan Malloch
Euan was asked to record a session for Alesha – a stripped back version of ‘Cool With Me’ from her last album release, ‘Entertainer’, which will be featured on STV’s ‘The Hour Show‘ 8pm tonight (Tuesday 4th Oct). The video will be on the STV player afterwards so there will be links to the video online. Alesha is also hosting this years MOBO awards in Glasgow
Euan is a session musician and teacher based in Glasgow who also plays in two bands: ACUTONES and LITTLE EYE. We are delighted to be supporting another great player – he has played all over the world and heard about us through D’addario’s Bruce Falconer. He came to workshop & chose the Bootlegger (see pic)- after taking it home and playing it he emailed to let us know…. “The guitar is awesome!!!”
Thanks Euan and good luck! The whole Bailey crew will be cheering you on!
Build your own custom guitar – kevin – BYO 297
Wine red, single cut, with f-hole
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- signature on back of headstock
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- F-hole
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- Flame maple cap
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- custom headstock decal
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- bailey-BYO-297
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- Side view
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- Ash back and maple neck
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- Single cut wine red custom
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- Almost there!
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- Setting the intonation
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- Tuning up
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- Kevin begins assembling his guitar
Kevin came on Saturday to complete the guitar he started back in June. As he had wanted a gloss he’d had to leave it with us for spraying then come back to assemble, wire up, fret dress and set up the guitar.
As usual it was a full day with couple of hitches but we got there in the end as we always do!
This was Kevin’s third instrument to be built on our course! – last time he made this bass.
Build your own custom Bass – kevin – BYO 292
4- string bass with bolt on neck
Kevin made this Bass last time he came on the Bailey Build Your Own course. He brought it back with him for a ‘once over’ so while he did the fishing touches to his latest work I took the opportunity to get some pictures. Nice work Kevin!
Bailey custom acoustic guitar- Ziricote and Bearclaw Bootlegger-P6
Making the neck
Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6
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- Routing the truss rod slot
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- Gluing on the fretboard
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- Carving the heel
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- The neck is test fitted
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- Mother of pearl marker dots
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- Laying out the headstock inlays
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- The paper pattern is glued to the mother of pearl blank
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- Drilling the penguins eye
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- Cutting out the inlay shape
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- The headstock is marked out
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- Routing the headstock inlay
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- Test fitting the pieces
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- Black superglue fills the hole
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- The pieces are pressed in
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- Inlay left to dry
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- The Finished ‘Penguin’ Headstock inlay
The neck started as a roughly 2″x4″ piece of mahogany which was first slotted for the truss rod, then the shape was roughly cut out and the tuner holes drilled before installing the truss rod and gluing on the fretboard.
The next stage was to carve the neck and finish shaping the heel, then the neck was test fitted to check everything lined up OK before levelling the fretboard, and installing the position dot markers, after which the frets were installed.
Finally the headstock inlays were made and fitted- Our Bailey Logo’s are usually made by Small Wonder Music, but the ‘Penguin’ I handmade myself:
The paper pattern (picture of Penguin) was glued to a mother of pearl blank before being cut out with a jewellers saw, and the edges cleaned up with a file. The piece was temporarily fixed in place onto the headstock with just enough glue to hold them for marking out, which was done with a pointy scribe. The pieces were then carefully pried loose with a chisel and a mini router was used to remove the material between the lines. Black super glue was used to fix in the pieces as it will be virtually invisible against the ebony background. I used masking tape to keep things tidy and when the glue was dry the headstock was sanded flat to reveal the finished design. Now the guitar is ready for spraying.
The ‘Penguin’ inlay was designed by Eaun’s wife Beth who is obviously a great designer and currently ‘about to give birth any minute’- Best of luck and best wishes from all at Bailey Guitars!
Bailey Guitars – Exotica Review
Bailey Exotica guitar reviewed by Hayden Hewitt for Playmusic Magazine
London Acoustic Guitar Show – The Aftermath
Bailey Guitars @ London Acoustic Guitar Show
10-11 September 2011
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- The lovely Jade and Sopranino Uke
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- Giles inventor of ‘The Swipe’
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- Preston’s Demo
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- Making a video with Martin Taylor
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- Preston meets some fans
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- Preston Reed visits the Bailey Stand
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- Jason from Rotosound meets Carol
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- Simon from Brook Guitars
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- Martin Taylor pays a visit
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- The Bailey Stand
Bailey Guitars would like to thank everyone at the London Acoustic Guitar Show for making it such a great experience. Although the show was not as busy as we hoped we still had a fantastic time. We didn’t get the ‘big break’ we were hoping for but felt the warm fuzzy glow of a friendly atmosphere throughout and everyone seemed to love our guitars.
For those who missed it:
Preston Reed‘s masterclass, demoing some of his special techniques, had jaws dropping and eyes popping, of course using his own Bailey Preston Reed Signature Baritone– Preston was sponsored by D’addario whose strings he has been using for a long time. Both the signature guitars are made to Preston’s personal spec including the strings !
There were a lot of other fine guitars there, makers and players too.
We met some old friends and made some new ones.
I watched my old friend Patrick Eggle‘s talk about building his latest beautiful instruments, with Gareth Pearson (once borrowed my AER for his set at Ullapool Guitar Festival!) demoing his guitars. I was lucky enough to have started my guitar making career working for Patrick many moons ago when he was based in his Coventry workshop making electric guitars so it is always great to see him.
Simon from Brook Guitars appeared- He gave me some good advice when we met ten years ago at my first ever show. It helped a lot so I got a chance to thank him for that.
We met the guys from Rotosound which was a revelation as I (to my shame) did not realise that they were a British company and their strings are made in the UK.
On the Sat night the organisers of the show had arranged an ‘after show party’ with ‘open mike’ which is a very rare treat at these kind of events. Apart from the occasional spontaneous one which has broken out over the years, we usually just go for a curry and an early night so we can be fresh for the next day.
However on this occasion I was already two pints ahead of everyone else having been led astray earlier by Martin Taylor, who had ‘forced’ me to sneak of for a couple in a nearby tavern.
We took our turn early on the ‘open stage’- I accompanied Carol with my old trusty no.2 guitar while Carol serenaded the hard nut London crowd until they became marshmallows, then we retreated to the outside tables where we met Giles, inventor of ‘The Swipe’ – the only guitar string cleaner that gets underneath the string. We hit it of straight away, exchanged life stories, and sealed the deal with a Hendricks gin (or two).
Patrick joined us and Frank and his wife Sue, Foz and a lot of other folk (Mick and er…sorry…it’s gone again…) we made merry until the bar closed. We ended up with Jason at Orlando the Columbian’s house, just round the corner, for a cup of tea. Jason’s father founded Rotosound Strings which are made here in the UK. He has boundless energy and kept us up far too late before we staggered off to our hotel room. It wasn’t until the next day we found out I had been sitting next to Fish most of the night. The Fish… And Frank turned out to be his guitar player! It was a great night, with great folk, and great music (as my friend Gordon would say)
On the Sunday me and Carol were both slightly worse for wear but still had a great last day.
The highlight of the whole show for me was making a video with Martin Taylor for Elixir Strings about how to change guitar strings properly which included a short interview.
BIG Thanks to Bruce, Steve, Phil at D’addario for their company & for inviting Preston to play.
Special thanks to Sandy Thomson for loaning us his spectacular Bailey Custom Ancient Kauri Guitar.
Thanks to The Stegg and Jamie everyone else who helped get us there!